Me playing my Tender7

Me playing my Tender7 - 04/18/1303:25 PM

Hi all,

I know others have posted recordings of this piece recently. I've been giving it some effort as well and managed to make this video. This is about as good as I can play the piece with the video camera running. It's pretty good but not note perfect. It is a fairly good representation of how I think the piece should be played. Sadly the video camera compresses the audio pretty significantly, the quiet parts should sound much quieter. Next step will be either a new video camera or record the audio with my laptop and real microphones. I hope you enjoy.

Re: Me playing my Tender7 - 04/18/1310:03 PM

Hi Steve! Your posting serves to remind me that I have been putting some significant time against both your Rhapsody and the "rethought" Toccata, and should be able to share a "first-blush" recording with you in, say, a couple of weeks. Both of these works are, of course, considerably more challenging than Tender7, but it's been worth it to me to work through them. On the Toccata, incidentally, I slowed the tempo down considerably and am treating it sort of a light neo-classical piece, although the chromatic section before the reprise I'm approaching more romantically, with a slight wistful undertone. Having said this, I still inherently prefer the fast string ensemble of your original conception, but it's virtually impossible to honor that in solo piano form, at least at m technical level.

Has Andy posted Tender7 yet? I very much liked what he did with a couple of your other compositions. To my ear, it seems like you conceive of Tender7 somewhat more epically than I do -- the overall gesture seemed very much like Luminous, which I DO relate to as epic, in a Coplandesque sense. The sound quality was indeed rather coarse, and you'd be well served with an improved set-up.

Hope to get something to you by the end of the month -- next week looks pretty open, so it's doable.

Re: Me playing my Tender7 - 04/19/1304:57 PM

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the good news. I've held off responding hoping Andy would chime in. If you've been working on both Rhapsody and Toccata you've been working very hard and I appreciate your efforts. I know from experience that working on those pieces can do wonders for one's technique. I look forward to hearing what you've accomplished with both of them.

Re: Me playing my Tender7 - 04/20/1302:30 PM

If not, I do have another form in mind, which is each A repeats in variations immediately following the A sections, but taking the same form as above.

I also thought of Prelude as the main theme seems to come back.

It is a very thoughtful piece.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's been about 14 years since I composed this piece and my recollection about writing it was that I was more concerned about keeping the rhythm a consistent seven meter. I do recall thinking at the end of the first section that it was time for something different. I would disagree with your analysis, there is no C section, it's all A or B, but with significant variations. Thus I think your second idea is closer to my actual practice in this piece.

When writing I'm not usually thinking about the form, but rather the dramatic structure (i.e. more related to building and releasing tension and of course achieving climax). Which leads me to say that Bernstein had it right, when a composer would bring him a piece he'd often ask, "Will it give me an orgasm?"

Sorry for getting distracted, but my point is I try to balance two things enhancing dramatic structure and minimizing thematic material. This is why when a budding composer asks what they should do to improve their work my advice is often to try their hand at variations (but do more than a few because the first few are the obvious ones). Even the Rhapsody mentioned above has only a few thematic ideas, it just doesn't sound that way.